The Scooter of Doom

By Anonymous, Cupertino, CA

Image Credit: Kyle G., Clarksville, TN

The author's comments:

I want people to know that anything can change no matter what.

She was yelling at the kid, “ Why did you trip me? Why?”The kid would not speak; they kept saying it was an accident, but I knew it was not. The kid acted like nothing happened, like nobody’s life changed. But, something did change and it started out as the most epic day possible!

Earlier that day: Even though it was in braids, Her hair was racing through the wind. She was smiling widely as she rode her scooter around her closest friends. “Why did she have to go somewhere?” the girl asked while riding the fastest she had ever ridden. She was having the greatest day. It all happened in front of the house: the place where she made the most memories anyone could make in one spot. The grass had turned brown because of the major drought in California, but at that moment she did not care. All of a sudden, someone stuck their foot right in front of the scooter’s path. The foot belonged to a kid, a dumb kid. Everything would change, she did not want it to change but it would change. The change would affect her entire life.

“Ammaaaaa!” she screamed. “Amma” means mom in the language she spoke. She looked down and saw the worst thing a person could ever see- her bone six inches from its original position. She panicked; she did not know what to say when her mom asked her what happened. That’s what she was worried about, not her bone being in the right place, but what her mom would ask her. The kid who had tripped her ran away.

She ran to the hospital, meaning her parents drove her as fast as they could. When she arrived at the hospital they took a x-ray of her hand. The truth was that she had a dislocation, which meant she had a surgery, but the thing running through her head wasn’t “Is my hand ok?”, it was “Why did that kid trip me and who was that kid?” Her surgery was fine, but the minute she got home she ran out the door to the place where she fell.

This is where the real story begins, the interesting part. It was basically midnight, she was outside her house staring at the blood on the cement- the mark that she had left- the place where everything changed. She was standing there for five minutes not doing anything. Suddenly, she was laughing, not for fun, but at herself. She was laughing at her stupidity. I know I keep repeating everything, but all of this is true. It all happened to her. It all happened to me. I was the kid that got tripped; I was the kid who had a dislocation; I was the one whose life was about to change.

I ran out the door the next morning to find the kid who tripped me. They lived somewhere in the community. I knew it because I had seen this kid around. I don't know why they had tripped me. It might have been that they didn’t like me. I said to myself, “But, I don’t even know this kid,”. As I ran through the streets it felt like there was a giant bomb going to explode inside me. It kept on ticking; it kept on ticking for me to find this kid who tripped me. Then, it stopped and the bomb exploded.

There was the kid who tripped me. The kid was standing there -looking around. That person was looking kinda like they were making sure no one was there. They were wearing a hood so I could not see their entire face, this is exactly what they were wearing the day before. I did not see them before because they were wearing a hood. I ran as fast as I could; even though it hurt me, I needed to know why they tripped me, who they were, why they tripped me.

I don't know why but the kid stopped, it was just me and the kid. I started to yell. “ Why did you do this? Take off your hood! Who are you? Tell me, tell me right now.” They took of their hood. I yelled in shock I couldn’t believe who it was. It was my best friend. I started to cry. “Why would you do this to me?” I kept asking her the same question.

She kept answering me with it was an accident. I asked her one last time and then I started to cry. I don’t usually cry, I am not that type of person. She started to explain, “ I tripped you because you had tripped me before. It hurt me so bad, I did not expect it to go this far, I wanted you to get hurt, but I did not want you to get a surgery. I did not want you to stop swimming, taekwondo and basketball.” She started to sniffle. She had tears in her eyes. Then I knew my life was about to change, I never thought about it till she told me. But, I knew she was sorry. She was the nicest person in the world, she would not do anything unless she had purpose behind it. IF she did do something on purpose that hurt someone she would be really sorry. I know hear, after all she was my best friend for 4 years.

From that day on my best friend and I were fine, nothing had changed between her and me, but everything else did. We were fine because she apologized like 300 times at the end I forgave her. Not every story has a happy ending, my story changes my entire life. It does not end in a good way. Anything can change, if you want it to or not. The question is are you gonna be careless like me and let it change?

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